


No More Chances

by Somiko_Raven



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Check End Notes, Dark, Death, M/M, Not X-Men: Dark Phoenix Compliant, Post-X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Read the warning, Understand the warning, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:54:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23540407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somiko_Raven/pseuds/Somiko_Raven
Summary: Erik never thought he would see anything like this. Never thought his hand would be forced to do something so horrible."You are not alone," he said, staring into tearing eyes.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	No More Chances

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning is: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings. This does not mean that warnings do not exist.**
> 
> If you are concerned about the warning not being shown, drop down to the bottom of the end notes. Please remember this is dark and unhappy.

Seeing the aftermath of someone he loved fall so low was more painful than he could ever have imagined.

So many lives lost. Innocent people who never expected it. Humans and mutants alike fell to the disastrous blow of a telepath losing all control. The city’s population had plummeted to less than half of what it was within only a few terrifying seconds.

Erik stared at what was left. Bodies everywhere. They never had a chance. Even if they knew to run, they never had a chance.

“Charles.”

He could barely hear his own voice over the intense silence that surrounded him. But he knew, wherever he was, Charles heard him. He was too powerful not to.

A vision of the man he never stopped loving appeared before him, taking the appearance he had when they first met. “Erik.”

Erik stared at him. Memories flooded him. Kisses shared under a blanket of stars. Soft touches under bed covers. Passionate love burning so bright and hot.

Extinguished in the blink of an eye by a deflected bullet.

But even when their love shook so violently, their connection never truly wavered. They kept meeting, kept loving. Their bond never broke even under the harshest conditions. All the times Erik nearly killed Charles, and yet the man welcomed him back, welcomed him home.

Today would not be like the others. Today was _not_ like the others.

“Where are you?”

Charles began to smile, but his eyes shined with unshed tears. “You know exactly where I am.”

“Cerebro?”

“Oh, Erik. Cerebro was never _ours_ , darling.”

His breath caught in his throat. He did not want to do this. “It was an accident,” he tried to convince himself, his eyes drifting over the grave sight around them.

“Erik…”

“You weren’t in control, Charles. Please say you weren’t.” _I can’t imagine you choosing to do all this._

Charles walked up to him, a hand raised before he frowned and dropped it. “I love you,” he told him.

“Charles!”

“Please come to me, Erik. You don’t have much time.”

The vision vanished. Erik found his hand in the air, longing to touch Charles one more time. To hold him and whisper how it’s going to be okay. That they could start over. They could leave together, start a life together.

There was a pulsing against his mind. Pressure strengthened and Erik fell to his knees. It was like someone was trying to squeeze his head and crush his brain. Tighter and tighter.

And a whisper. A voice he hadn’t heard in years but froze him to his core. How was Erik hearing him now?

But then a soothing calm settled him and he knew for certain _that_ was Charles.

He was confused. What was going on? “Charles?”

_Please, Erik._

Hearing his beloved’s voice like that only chilled Erik more, and he got to his feet. Charles was in trouble. Charles needed him.

He lifted the metal under his boots into the air and raced to the school. The glass in the windows had shattered when it all happened. He floated in through one of the frames.

But Erik had to look away. So many lifeless bodies lay on the floor. It took everything he had to keep himself from vomiting as he stepped around them, but then he stopped when his eyes caught sight of Hank leaning in a doorway, positioned in an attempt to shield a younger student.

Stumbling backwards, Erik began to hear loud breathing and he jumped, turned, tried to find who else -

Oh… It was him. He was only hearing himself.

He was shaking. It was not real. It could not possibly be real!

What felt like a hammer to the head struck him and he fell to his knees with a cry. The damn pulsating pressure again.

_You were always my greatest accomplishment, Erik._

“Shaw!” The pulsing increased. He was seeing spots.

_Join me, Erik. We can get rid of the humans together. You and I._

He yelled, iron pipes crashing through the walls as they were drawn to him. It was all going to be over soon. He could feel it.

_I can relieve your pain if you just say yes._

“Y-you’re dead!”

He could hear screaming down the hall past Hank. The pain began to subside. Erik tried to breathe, coughing and gasping. _Charles. I’m coming._ But no response reached him. Everything was quiet once again.

His limbs trembled as he fought to stand. He fell against a wall once on his feet and rested, his eyes focused on the floor. Erik knew he didn’t have time to waste but getting his body to move was a struggle.

With a swallow, he began walking again, passing a few more that had fallen. He knew where he was going. It was _theirs_ , his and Charles’.

He pushed the door to Charles’ bedroom open. The man was curled up on the floor, sheets tangled around him.

“Charles.” Erik went to him and knelt by his side. “Charles, what is going on?”

Upon hearing his voice, Charles looked up. “N-no helmet?”

“No helmet.”

“No.” He shook his head. “No, no, no, oh no, Erik.”

“What’s going on?”

“You need it. Y-you need it, E-Erik.”

Erik didn’t understand. He couldn’t figure out why Charles would want him wearing it for once.

The pulsing returned and they both cried out, Charles reaching out and clutching Erik’s hand. Erik could feel the pain in his head travel through his chest and down his arm and transfer to Charles. “W-what are you -”

“Can’t…” Charles gasped out. “C-can’t let you die. Not yet!”

It ended shortly after, luckily with no haunting voice from Erik’s past.

Panting, Erik peered into Charles’ eyes. There was so much agony in the usually vibrant blue. “Charles?”

“I can’t hold him back.” It was a whisper, yet so loud against the quiet.

“Can’t hold who back?”

“That day… on the beach.”

Erik remembered that day. The day they fell apart for the first time.

“Y-you killed him, but… but he stayed with me.”

“What?”

Charles closed his eyes, a tear sliding down. “I was so entangled with his mind. It was the only way I could hold him. A-and then you killed him… drove that coin through his brain. Something… something happened then, Erik.” He shakily breathed. "His mind j-joined mine. I’ve been holding him back a-all these years.”

Erik entwined their fingers. “And now he’s fighting back? Trying to win control?”

“I’m so sorry.” With his free hand, Charles touched Erik’s head. “I love you.”

“We can stop him. Together. Somehow -”

Charles pulled Erik into a kiss, so gentle and soft. His fingers slipped through Erik’s hair, before stopping at his temple.

Erik felt his power reach out. A large knife from the kitchen started flying through the corridors. “Don’t do it,” he told Charles as they parted.

“I will let go of you before it hits,” he promised.

“Charles, don’t do it. Please don’t do it.”

“I love you, Erik.”

The knife reached the bedroom.

“I always have. I always will.”

“C-Charles.”

The knife floated above them.

“If I don’t succeed with one try, Erik… please finish it for me.”

Erik said nothing.

“Please promise me.”

“I can’t.” He tried to blink back the tears. Tried to pretend this was not real. Just a horrible dream, a nightmare to wake from. “Charles, I can’t.”

“Erik -”

The pulsing returned. Pain vibrated through them. Charles’ focus faltered and the knife began its descent.

“No!”

_‘You are a good man, Erik,’ Charles told him one afternoon._

_Erik looked at him from the other side of the half-played chess set. ‘Not really.’_

_‘You are. I have told you, there is good in you. Even if sometimes you try very hard to bury it.’ He smiled at Erik’s scowl. ‘In the end, you always do the right thing.’_

_‘What if the right thing isn’t what you want?’_

The blade hovered just above Charles’ head. There was a red line where it barely touched that had a small bead of blood.

Erik held his breath, using his power to keep the thing in place.

“Why?” Charles asked him. His eyes flooded with tears. “Erik, why?”

_It won’t be long now._

That voice. That cursed voice.

_Soon we will rule together, Erik._

“Is there no way to prevent it?” Erik needed to ask.

“No. I’m sorry, Erik. With or without your help, this… this is my final day.”

 _Don’t worry, Erik._ That man’s voice again. _I will allow you time with the body if you want it._

Shaking his head, Erik lifted the knife into the air. “You always meant the most to me, Charles.” He helped him sit up. “You always will.” He wiped a couple tears away from the other’s cheeks. “I love you, Charles. I love you.”

“I-I love you too.”

Leaning in, Erik took one last kiss. “Goodbye, my friend.”

Charles attempted to give a smile, but it just broke Erik’s heart more. “Goodbye, my love.”

He needed to be strong. He needed to do it. He needed to focus.

He needed to stop Shaw’s return.

The knife went into the hall and turned to face them both.

“Erik?”

“You are not alone.”

“No. Erik, no. No.”

Erik pulled him closer and touched their foreheads together. “Neither of us is alone now.”

He needed enough force. Enough power.

The knife launched through the air, speeding towards them. Another sign of Shaw’s return struck, pulsing, aching. Erik kept its flight as straight as he could. It needed to work.

It needed to work.

It had to work the first time.

They had no other chances.

Never again would they laugh together. Never again would they share longing glances. Never again would they kiss and murmur ‘I love you’.

But Shaw never did succeed. He never had a chance.

Years later, the doors to the school opened. Whatever was left was removed, remains returned to families.

But there was one room no one could ever enter as it was guarded by all the metal on the property.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [tumblr](https://crystallized-iron.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Beta'd by [daydreamerdisease](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydreamerdisease)
> 
> **WARNING: Major Character Death, Suicide**


End file.
